Aftershocks
After the general meeting ended, it took nearly an hour for the crowd to disperse from the square.
Long Tian did not stay in the square to receive any further congratulations or inquiries. As he walked through the thinning crowd toward the square's exit, people on both sides automatically parted to make way for him; no one stopped him, and no one chased after him. His Dragon Shadow hovered about ten feet above his head, following his movements. At this position, he no longer needed to deliberately fold his wingspan to pass through the narrow gate—the width of the entire square's exit was sufficient to accommodate his wingspan fully extended.
After walking south from the plaza for a while, Yu Jin quickly caught up from behind, a piece of paper folded into a thin strip between his fingers, the ink still fresh at the edges. "Someone slipped this into my hand while you were standing there. It wasn't passed on by anyone present; it was thrown from afar using Soul Power."
Long Tian took the paper, unfolded it, and glanced at it. There were only a few words on it, just one line; the handwriting was unfamiliar but the pressure was even.
"A ship departed from the northern mineral veins tonight, but it wasn't carrying Ore Core Stone."
Long Tian folded the paper again and stuffed it into his sleeve. He looked up at the sky; it was just past noon, and the sun was still in the southern hemisphere. The Northern Border Mine was nearly four days' walk from Spirit City. If a ship left the shore tonight, he would be too late to set off now, unless he ran.
"To catch up with that ship, we need to run." Long Tian straightened his cuffs.
Yu Jin didn't hesitate. "How long?"
Run until you can't run anymore.
As the two exited Spirit City gate, the guards recognized the Dragon Shadow behind Long Tian, hesitated for a moment, but did not stop them. After leaving the city, Long Tian immediately began running north along the official road. He concentrated his Soul Power in his legs and breath, making each stride nearly twice the normal distance. The Dragon Shadow hovered above his head, following at the same speed, its wing membranes adjusting their angle in the airflow to reduce wind resistance, like a continuously opened umbrella maintaining a stable guiding angle in his direction of movement. Yu Jin maintained the same speed, half a step behind him. His dark gray bead continuously glowed from his collarbone, and his Power of Origin automatically replenished the energy consumed in his limbs during the intervals of running. The distance between the two did not widen during the continuous run, always maintaining a gap just wide enough for the Dragon Shadow's light layer to cover Yu Jin's shoulder.
After running for the first hour, Spirit City was no longer visible behind them. The fields by the roadside had turned from wheat fields into barren slopes, and then into hills covered with rubble. After the third hour, the sky began to turn westward. Yu Jin's breathing was heavier than before, but his rhythm remained the same. Long Tian adjusted his stride frequency and slowed down slightly, keeping the distance between them constant. After the sixth hour, it was completely dark. The official road had become a dirt road, and the hills on both sides began to show sections of bare, iron-gray rock, as if something had been extensively dug in this area. The color of the ground had changed from brown to grayish-white.
As dawn broke, they could see the outline of the mining area. Low-lying sheds were scattered at the foot of a hillside that had been dug out. Railway tracks extended from the tunnel entrance, with dump trucks parked at the end of the tracks, empty. There was a guard post at the entrance to the mining area, but no one was inside. The entire mining area appeared to have been idle for at least a day or two; the equipment remained where it was, and there were no fresh footprints or tire tracks on the ground. The dust layer on the open ground was even, showing no signs of recent footsteps.
Long Tian stopped behind the bare rocks at the edge of the mining area, bent over, and braced himself against his knees to catch his breath. Yu Jin squatted beside him; the light from the dark gray bead had dimmed considerably, and the area near his collarbone was almost invisible in the morning light. Long Tian looked up into the depths of the mining area—at the bottom of the caved-in mountainside, there was a narrow opening. The door was wide, but half-closed, revealing a narrow slit. In the darkness inside the slit, a faint grayish-white afterglow was slowly fading, like the water returning to calm after a ship has left the shore.
He straightened up, walked to the half-open door, and squeezed through. Behind the door was a downward-sloping path, with an extinguished wall lamp every so often on either side. Two parallel drag marks were visible on the ground beneath his feet—wide and deep, like the marks left by a heavy object being dragged outwards evenly. The even spacing and depth of the drag marks didn't seem like the traces of a hasty retreat, but rather like a loaded truck being steadily pushed towards the exit. Long Tian squatted down and touched the loose soil inside the drag marks. The surface of the soil still retained a layer of lingering warmth, the same kind of warmth that the crystal in his pocket had once possessed. He stood up and followed the drag marks to the end of the slope, where a wider exit led to a shallow mudflat. A long trail left by a boat hull marked the edge of the mudflat, and a fine layer of grayish-white powder floated on the water, slowly being carried downstream by the current.
Long Tian squatted down by the mudflats, dipped his finger in the powder on the water's surface, and as he rubbed it between his fingertips, the powder left a very thin layer of grayish-white sheen on his skin, just like the powder left after crushing Ore Core Stone. He stood up, wiped the residue off his fingers on the hem of his clothes, and glanced back at the direction of the ramp entrance. Yu Jin was standing halfway up the ramp waiting for him.
"How long has the ship been gone?" Yu Jin asked.
Long Tian glanced at the extent to which the powder on the water's surface had been dispersed. "They've been gone for at least an hour. They didn't disturb anyone during the loading. After transporting the last batch of Ore Core Stone, they stopped all the equipment before leaving, making a clean departure without leaving any traceable clues."
He stood on the mudflats, gazing downstream. The estuary lay far beyond the bay's mouth, and all he could see was a stretch of water, bathed in the morning light, flowing slowly into the distance. As he looked toward the estuary Dragon Shadow hovering above his head slowly turned its two heads, their gazes following the same current toward the distant mouth. All four eyes were open, but the vertical line on its forehead remained closed, like a mark that didn't yet need to be drawn.
Yu Jin descended the slope and stood beside him. The two stood side-by-side at the edge of the mudflat. The layer of grayish-white powder on the water continued to drift towards the estuary. Some of it split into finer strands where it passed protruding rocks, but its overall direction remained unchanged, like a pre-formed watercourse that flowed downwards without needing a directional guide. The two-headed Dragon Shadow hovered behind them, its folded wings edged in the morning light, reflected by the water's surface, like a lit lamp placed on a table, needing no movement; its continued illumination was enough to clearly define the outline of the entire room. Their gazes converged on the same point along the water's edge. At the end of the path where the powder was carried away by the current, a thin layer of morning mist slowly spread along the water's surface, like the last layer of moisture left by a departing ship, receding into the wider waters under the force of the current.